BBNFL: Josh Allen, rookies shine in final week of season
It’s quite possibly the worst week of the year, but at least it happened one week later this time around. The last week of the NFL regular season means that it’s the last time we get to see some of our former ‘Cats play football this year. It sure wasn’t lacking entertainment–let’s take a look.
Josh Allen goes out on top
For as utterly torturous as this season has been for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Sunday’s win may have been worth all the troubles. The Colts went into that game as two touchdown favorites playing for their spot in the playoffs. They had every reason to be going all out against arguably the worst team in the league. Josh Allen, Trevor Lawrence and the Jags had other ideas.
Allen finished with two sacks against the Colts on Sunday, the first time he’s recorded a sack since the infamous matchup against the man of the same name. Allen finished with four tackles and a couple of QB hits to complement the sacks.
It was a successful bounce-back campaign for Josh Allen following the debacle that was his second season. Allen finished with a career-high 71 tackles to go along with 7.5 sacks and his first career interception. Who knows what the future will hold, but the Jaguars are in prime position to add another elite edge rusher in the draft. It’ll be interesting to see how that impacts Josh Allen going into 2022.
Rookies show their worth for next year
As everyone fully expected, Kentucky’s massively successful draft class came up with some more impressive performances before their rookie season ended.
Kelvin Joseph came up with the best game of his young career as he got one of his first real shots to play starting reps for the Cowboys. Joseph struggled to see the field consistently after being hindered by an injury until Week 8. He got his first chance to start a couple of weeks ago, but that was the 56-14 blowout against Washington so it was a little tough to get a reasonable assessment. Sunday’s win, while still in a blowout, was Kelvin’s breakout performance.
Kelvin Joseph finished with nine tackles while playin 100% of snaps on defense. He’ll get some more opportunities this year to make noise since the Cowboys will be in the playoffs, so this may become the first of a few more games like this for Kelvin this season.
Sticking in the NFC East, Jamin Davis had one of his better performances this year while in a limited role. The linebacker only played on 58% of defensive snaps but was able to collect eight tackles, including one for loss that made a highlight.
Brandin Echols capped off his impressive rookie campaign with a test against one of the best in the business. Against Bills’ QB Josh Allen and WR Stefon Diggs, Echols finished with five tackles while playing nearly every snap.
The corner finished his first season with 63 tackles, eight pass defenses and two interceptions. Not bad for a sixth-round pick.
Other notable performances
- Lonnie Johnson Jr. (HOU): four tackles on 65% of snaps
- Corey Peters (ARI): four tackles on 55% of snaps
- Chris Westry (BAL): four tackles on 34% of snaps
- Bud Dupree (TEN): three tackles on 60% of snaps
- Mike Edwards (TB): three tackles on 26% of snaps
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